Romance really does know how to suck the fizz out of an adventure film! Here, with the complicit contribution of John Williams' string accompaniment we have to endure the nauseating love story between Hayden Christensen ("Anakin") and Natalie Portman ("Padmé"). Couldn't they just have got a room? "Palpatine" has seen to it that Ewan McGregor ("Obi Wan") has now been charged with guiding his young pupil to fulfil his potential with the "Force" but without being elevated to the status of Jedi master, so he is naturally a tad narked about that. Luckily for us, though, he discovers that there is a secret army of clones ("Jango Fett" lookalikes dressed a lot like Stormtroopers and just as useless in a gun fight) and so with the help of "Yoda" et al, he rallies the Jedi order against the evil "Count Dooku" (Christopher Lee). Away from the slush, it's a good action fantasy and the last half hour redeems it somewhat. Worth watching if you like the series, but a very poor relation of it's older cousins.

MORE REVIEWS @ https://www.msbreviews.com/ Rewatching before OBI-WAN KENOBI. I don't know if I dislike THE PHANTOM MENACE more or ATTACK OF THE CLONES less, but I didn't feel the (endless) problems of episode II as much as I - Jar Jar being left aside helps tremendously, thank God. Still, the issues are so many that I can't fit them in a single paragraph. The dialogue is even worse in this one, mostly due to the cringeworthy romantic storyline between Anakin and Padmé. Some of the worst writing the big screen has ever witnessed. I'm usually quite defensive of acting performances, but Christensen is truly, deeply terrible here. There are more lightsaber fights, but none come even close to Maul's sequence in TPM. Once again, the overreliance on CGI elements/characters doesn't help the action set pieces, despite the visuals overall improvement. The score makes most scenes "look" better than they are. The screenplay is packed with logical inconsistencies, but it's the poor treatment of the all-powerful, wise Jedi that disappoints me. From their lack of awareness to the made-up, nonsensical rules about their ideology, I really don't know what Lucas had on his mind. Finally, the editing yet again. ATTACK OF THE CLONES is longer than it should. Captivating, important sequences are cut too short, while dull, exposition-heavy scenes are carried on for too long. There's a good movie in here somewhere. I just can't find it. However... Its positives somehow land better this time around. I find most of the action pretty solid. Anakin rescuing his mother is arguably one of the best scenes of the prequels. And again, less Jar Jar. I genuinely think it switches with THE PHANTOM MENACE ... at the bottom of my ranking, though. Rating: D+

Better than <em>'Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace'</em>, though <em>'Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones'</em> is again rather underwhelming - if still good on its own merits. Liam Neeson is missed, with the likes of Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen and Christopher Lee failing to set the world alight. McGregor does give the best performance of that quartet; Christensen possibly the weakest, though his character's story is probably the most interesting - or its overall arc, at least. Those onscreen aren't helped by the dialogue, which is very basic and run-of-the-mill. I found the score a little forgettable, even if it's still fun to hear the key pieces of it. The plot is watchable, but I did expect greater storytelling from these two follow-up releases to the original trilogy. The CGI is, marginally, an improvement on this film's predecessor.